Senate Committee Hears from Former TWA Workers

Washington, D.C. – In Washington, US Senator Kit Bond of Missouri chaired a committee hearing Thursday looking into why thousands of former TWA employees have been laid off since American Airlines bought TWA in 2001.

The hearing sought to answer why American Airlines simply stapled TWA workers to the bottom of their seniority list without properly integrating them.

"They promised that only after the two unions met and reached an agreement would they adopt whatever agreement came out of the talks," said Sherry Cooper, a former TWA flight attendant. "In our case, there were no talks. We repeatedly demanded that American Airlines honor its commitment to us that we'd be allowed to attend talks; they instead held secret talks in which they stapled us," she said.

By July 2, 100 percent of the nearly 4,200 former TWA flight attendants will have been furloughed.